"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself."- John Dewey.
From the job market to tertiary education, from UPSR to A-Levels, Education in Malaysia focuses on bringing you the latest news and analysis on our nation's best bet on the future.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

University Entrance: Something's Not Right...

I've only just written briefly on the university entrance statistics yesterday. My impression of this year's intake scenario is that the Ministry of Higher Education has taken some effort (at the very least from the public relations perspective) to minimise as far as possible the negative press which afflicts the ministry annually for the past few years. And I actually thought that they are moving somewhat in the right direction, albeit not at a speed I would have preferred.

However, certain reports I've read in the last two days may be seeding the clouds of doubt - that something is really wrong with the system. And I'm not just talking about the issues which have beend debated to death such as the "managed meritocracy" system we have.

I'm shocked to find out from Sdr Lim Kit Siang's blog post that a student who appears to be reasonably active in extra-curricular activities, who did very commendably with his SPM and STPM examinations (9A1s and 3As respectively) did not manage to secure a single spot in any of our public universities in any course! And he didn't even attempt to apply to the disproportionately popular medicine and pharmacy courses.

Contrary to what many commented as a "bumiputra vs non-bumiputra" issue on Sdr Lim's blog, I'm of the opinion that this travesty of academic justice has nothing to do with the "managed meritocracy" system we have which tends to favour matriculation students. The simple reason is that I've seen many many candidates with results poorer (of all races) who have been accepted into our local public universities, even the better ones such as Universiti Malaya (UM) or Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).

I can only imagine that the student's failure to obtain a place in the local public universities has all to do with the failure of the Bahagian Pengurusan Kemasukan Pelajaran (BPKP), or formerly known as the Unit Pusat Universiti (UPU) in its admission processes. How else could someone with examination results such as above fail to secure any places in the local universities? In addition, I can only assume that the above candidate isn't the only candidate with such a predicament.

Not being a product of the local university system, I'm personally not familiar with the BPKP application and selection process. Maybe someone with in depth knowledge or experience with the existing system may share some ideas here as to how something like this can happen.

In the mean time, if the student (or anyone else in the same predicament) ever reads this blog, I can only advise him or her not to give up hope, and don't be swayed by the "many people" who claimed that the E-Rayuan process is futile. If you don't try, then you'd never be successful.

And for those who are not already aware, you can submit your appeal on your application here before 30th June. Good luck! :)

64 comments:

Anonymous
said...

You are absolutely right! If obly the unit involved in students come out in a really transparent mechanism, this would not have happened.I wonder if Abdullah Badawi really appreciate this...and try to do something

AAB? What else he can do except hidding and let the ministers do whatever they wish to do? We should stop relying on him.

Tony, what you have said is true. From my own experience three years back (election year), there were quite a number of my friends who should have gotten a place but failed. On the other hand, those so-so students manage to secure one. I am really really curious about the system they adopt in Malaysia.

What i have heard so far is, these problems only occur to non-bumi students. They seem to offer places to those lower achiever non-bumi and deny those better ones so that they won't provide a very stiff competition to the bumis in university. How true it is, god knows.

It's not shocking, really. Speak to the STPM grads and you'll hear many more such cases. There is an option in the online application form whereby you select if you still want to accept any other courses if you are not eligible for any of your 8 choices.

Selecting NO will render you automatically without a place should you not qualify and selecting YES lands you with a random course. I have no idea how they select the "9th choice" but so far, a lot of my friends are getting courses that do not even reflect their personal selection of the 8 course choices.

"People with top grades/activities/etc get rejected from many places for many reasons. It's just a law of supply vs demand. Yet why the major stink in Malaysia?"

1. People with GOOD grades, etc. get rejected from GREAT places for many reasons.

2. To attribute the recurring university admission debacle to the "law of supply vs demand" is frankly asinine, when characteristics of the free market are largely absent from the admission process.

What we do have is politically-motivated tweaks of the criteria for admissions, effectively carving up spots in universities for separate pools of applicants (STPM vs matriculation, and possibly more and more applicants with rather foreign credentials in the future, considering the push to increase foreign student intake) before applying the "law of supply and demand" within each pool. It amazes me that politicians have the temerity to call that "meritocratic".

3. "Why the major stink in Malaysia?" It amazes me even more that some citizens---or more accurately, voters---let politicians get away with it.

p.s. Given Point 1 above, I can understand the student lodging the complaint with Mr. Lim being left out of dentistry. (I am not as familiar with the "biomedicine" program, which the complainant also applied for; anyone wish to opine on the quality of the admitted students and of the degree itself?)

Tiara, u fail to realise that for many of these top scorers, they're only way is through education. What's rubbing salt to injury for these young hopefuls is that they were unfairly rejected due to reasons any average Malaysian knows. Adaptability is one thing, but when you're unfairly and blatantly discriminated, then the question of one's adaptability is futile and pointless. Perhaps it is because you haven't been in such situations before. Cause if you were, I'm sure you will have a different outlook in this. Being in a helpless situation whilst seeing undeserving peers go on to study not only locally, but even overseas, is pure frustation. What's more, most of these are not priviliged to go for alternative education routes.

This situation happened not only for NON-BUMI...It's also happened to bumi..It doesn't matter how good is ur result, how active you are, you are easily outbit for a place in local universities by someone with "stronger cable" (you know what I mean) :-)..Also, gender biased! If you are men, you can easily get a place at public universities with lower grade compared to women candidates...Is this meritocracy???

You are looking at the issue from a wrong way. Yes discrimination and inefficiency is why students like these don't get accepted under the system. But the truth is the system is fundamentally wrong.

The basic system of admission into our university is basically wrong. Suppose the government makes all decision on employment and business opportunities. Suppose people who wants these jobs and business have to apply to the government and reveal everything before the jobs and opportunities are decided. The system would inevtiably crash. Why? Because customers and people who have to be served would inevitably decide that they will not buy or want it.

This is what admission to our universities is about - a inefficient monopolistic opaque central planning.

Students have to put up all their information and make choices up front without really knowing what the process is like or what they are up against. The Lords of admission then make decisions for them that ultimately will affect them for the rest of their lives. Their only other choice is not to participate in that process at all.

At its best this system will not fail based on one thing - an efficient and high quality civil service system. This is the crux of it - they won't admit they have a crap quality system and destroying people lives for this excuse. It is morally reprehensible at the very least.

Some say that others have the same system like in Singapore. The truth is the system over there firstly are staffed by high calibre people with internal checks and balances. And even they admit its not the best system and moving away from it giving universities independent decision on admission.

Lets face the truth, we know we have a mediocre civil service system and will be so very very long time (Put it this way, went do you think the NEP will be remove?). So the real only constructive solution is to decentralized admission process and each admission committee staffed with professional people with enough independence to make quality decision making, accountable to a board. If the government is serious about correcting the process, this is the only remotely realistic means of fixing the problem. The problem is the loss of control by politicians of the universities which is why this most sensible solution is not available to us.

See Malaysiakini report on China students NOT coming to Malaysia. Frankly for poor non-bumis in this country who fails to get in IPTA, their best option is to go to China and India which is why vernacular education is critical for non-bumis. Trust me, the quality of China schools even in lower-tiers ones are better than local universities. Indian universities many are actually better as far as quality of teaching but the infrastructure is very very poor but is changing.

We are lucky enough if China students NOT coming to Malaysia anymore..why??? Please look at what is happening in major city in Canada, NZ, Australia i.e Auckland & Toronto...don't even seem like english speaking country anymore...of course we want to have more international students to enrol in our universities but most of "these people" have their own agenda..we have enough Indon, Bangla etc...If more Chinese, we can't even differentiate Local Chinese and Chinese from China...Unless we can enforce strict immigration rules like in Singapore, then only we should think about having more Chinese student from China...If now we are complaining about Bumi-Non-bumi, next few years we will beg gov about Msian Chinese-Chinese China...sounds like Singapore?? Two main group Singaporian Chinese-Chinese China?? :-)

Anon Thu Jun 22, 10:27:45 AMYes, there's more women graduates than men...what I'm talking about is chances to get a place, especially in technical course..I know lots of cases where men with lower grades were offered places at universities, colleges etc while women with better grade were not offered...And yet we still have MORE women graduates...Imagine if 100% meritocracy....:-)

talk about education in malaysia makes me sick. if getting scholarships was such a nightmare, now getting a place being self-funded is also having problems? what next? this place stinks of ppl who misuse power. what happen to goodness above all? dont they know what theyre doing is a sin? sigh.

every damn thing here is discriminated - skin, gender, titles, wealth, connections, etc. ive known all of such cases personally, both who have been discriminated and those who were benefitting from it. and it makes me sick seeing them live their life ignorant of the misdeeds that have gotten them there. and some even intentionally flaunt it. what a scum.

It is interesting to note that under the previous administration under some doctor we had become the third rudest nation in the world under some publication in the international media. So really an inefficient and ineffective education system is no surprise.

AFTER reading your report, “Straight As not enough” (The Star, June 20), I am a bit perplexed as to why I was not offered my first choice of studying mechanical engineering at Universiti Malaya.

Instead I was offered environmental engineering which was my fourth choice.

As far as I know, under the new system, a student will get a maximum of 90 marks for academic grades and 10 marks for co-curriculum grades.

I am a student with a CGPA score of 4.0 which is worth 90 marks.

Now, according to Higher Education Management Department director-general Prof Datuk Dr Hassan Said, that as a national service trainee, I will receive another six points.

With both added together, I have already obtained 96 marks, excluding my extra co-curricular activities during my school days.

I was the president of my school computer club and vice-president of the Leo Club. I am sure that would have gained me an extra few points.

Fortunately, I have something to fall back on. I was offered my first choice by both the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University.

Not only that. I was given a scholarship to study in Singapore, too.

At first, I was reluctant to accept any of the offers by the Singapore universities as I thought I had a responsibility to serve my country.

Moreover, the Government has been working hard in addressing our country's brain drain problem.

However, after our local university's rejection of my first choice, I have decided to further my studies in Singapore.

I hope the Government will do more at this level to ensure that talented students, our future professionals, will not flock to other countries. Asking overseas professionals to return is just a short-term solution. We need to ensure that future professionals will be in Malaysia to achieve Vision 2020.

But I'm a bit more concerned about some of the personal attacks being written here, in this case, on Tiara.

We all have our views, and it is critical that we respect each others views for what they are worth. That's what this blog is about - to encourage and promote discussion. If you have a differing opinion, make your case and let others decide. Don't make rude, sweeping and unjustified accusations, especially under the guise of anonymity.

I'm not even in Australia yet. You think it's so easy? Try being an Assessment Level 3 visa applicant (Malaysia is Level 1) and see the hassle you have to go through.

I'm not saying "be uneducated". But I don't agree to the idea that the only definition of education is "public university". And why only the sciences? Where's the hue and cry from people who want to pursue other subject matters - business, humanities (oh woefully low), etc etc?

And how many of the people that do apply for such places actually are genuinely interested? And how many of them are just doing it because they think they have to?

I'm very LUCKY but a lot of it is because I make the best out of whatever's happened to me. I don't qualify for any scholarship in this country (I'm not a citizen; long story short, it wasn't a choice but a matter of law) and even if I did want to go to public uni, I'll never be offered a place because I'm "Lain Lain". My sister had straight As in her exams, she was one of the top students - but she'll never be offered a place in a public uni here. She has a Ph.D. now from London - point being, she MADE it work.

The application process could be made a lot better. They're not blameless. But too often the students here have an "all-or-nothing" attitude. I don't get this uni - my life is over. I don't get this scholarship - my life is over. I don't get my favourite subject - my life is over. I've had someone email me telling me how she mourned for 2 years and nearly killed herself because she didn't get a scholarship - for a subject she wasn't even keen on. She ain't alone.

For goodness sake. Why don't people learn to buck up and move on? So you didn't get a uni place this time. Find some other opportunity. Perhaps it means working at an entry-level job for a while to support yourself. Perhaps it means finding a community college. Perhaps it means taking a break. It doesn't mean cursing all around you, blaming "the system" for being unfair - but not doing anything for yourself.

When there's a will, there's a way. Too often, though, ways get broken from too-fragile wills.

Quote:For goodness sake. Why don't people learn to buck up and move on?

Yes, people are indeed moving on,... look at the number of fantastic students who struggled at all means to continue their study overseas when they're not getting any offer locally (and as a result, most probably never return to Malaysia).

These people should be deserving a place in local education institution if they qualify. Remember, their parents are tax payers too.

If you do not understand the exact struggles these people are going through, stop passing unqualified comments Tiara. Your statements are no better than those who are criticising you. You do not seem to learn do you?

You are fortunate to be able to finance your studies in Australia Tiara. Some people do not even have the resources to go overseas. Please be more considerate. Your comments are highly discouraging and not understanding at all.

I have two guy friends. "A" has a scholarship from a foreign Uni and "B" has one from a local Uni.So I guess they are "responsible" students and grade scorers.. "A" learns to be independant in the new campus environment learning new things and positively mixing around cultivating people management skills. What happens to "B" meanwhile? He also learn to be independant and learn new things. The last he told me he missed a morning exams because he overslept ( football matches again? ) Some of his same Uni friends, also scholarship students in this local Uni.miss exams too ( I hope he didn't learn that ). But no fear because the lecturers accept whatever excuses they came up with and arranged for resit.

This happens every year and it is bound to continue for the rest of my life...it is very depressing to read things concerning our education. And to Tiara, i guess you are really a very optimistic person...and i salute you for that. But if you are in their shoes....then you'll know how they ACTUALLY feel about all this. Don't ask me, i've felt enough.

I have to tell you that many years ago I also didn't fillup all choices (those time it was UPU). However, the result I got is an offer which is not in the choices I made, the reason was the courses I chose was full. My exams results were okay and I was not top students. There is something wrong with the system. Last time and now.

Yes, of course everybody can move on with their lifes. The only thing I want to say is, you are not a citizen, so you don't give a damn about the system here, because you or your children ain't gonna get a place in public uni whether the system is okay or not.

The difference between us and you is, you don't care, we do. Full stop.

The racial political climate in Malaysia made many people distrust the public university's admission system. I think everyone would agree this is often viewed as the few chances for upward mobility. Yet, it has been made a social tool by politicians.

While Tiara is, to some degree, right to say we have to try to make the best of what we have, it is a huge frustration to perceive opportunity being taken away. An extreme example would be South Africa's Apartheid. People of color can't vote and their hospitals are understaffed/underfunded. Surely they can possibly get by, strive to make opportunities, but the extreme inequality defines who they are. Humans by nature don't want others to define us. So yes, I can see the origins of the anger.

SPM/STPM graduates today are fortunate. We have a lot more options and possibilities. Those who did not get the university spot or that sweet scholarship should not loose hope. Evaluate yourself and work hard to create more opportunities. Taking alternative routes as proposed by Tiara is not such a bad idea for personal development. Taking one's life for a lost opportunity is pointless.

We all hope the admission system will change in the near future. While that would be ideal, students who are now studying for the PMR should be aware of the obstacles ahead and plan for them. I believe students should be inspired to excel. The culture of mediocracy among our students is very bad for our society. In science, in business or in the arts, being passionate and talented at your profession is the only criteria for success. Money should never be the measure of happiness. I would also like to share my concern of the alarming number of high school graduates who say: "I want to be a doctor". Sure you do, the money is good, but deep down, do you think you will be good at it and enjoy what you will be doing (almost) every day?

I sincerely hope the government sees what's happening on the ground level. Brain drain is an issue but a larger issue would be the yearly high school graduates who believe the government has short changed them.

One Jason: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. I agree with you completely. Yes it's unfortunate when an opportunity is taken away. But this goes on EVERY SINGLE YEAR. Same old same old. There needs to be change, at ALL levels. EVERYWHERE. Not just the system. But the students, the parents, the teachers, the community. EVERYONE.

Make people aware of all the options available. Make them aware of what they're really signing up for (like all the people who are all "I wanna be a doctor!"). Make them aware that things MAY NOT HAPPEN the way that they like, but even if that's the case, IT'S OK. They can still make it. Even if it takes a bit longer. Even if it takes a bit more work.

I'm not sure why I suddenly need to qualify myself (I don't see anyone else being asked for their credentials) but ok. I was born in Malaysia. I've lived here all my life. I've been in public schools. I took the UPSR and PMR and SPM and STPM. I took Humanities out of interest, and was looked down upon ONLY BECAUSE I WASN'T INTERESTED IN SCIENCE. (And there was also the factor that I was a racial minority; I got passed over for a lot of things just because I wasn't Malay, Chinese, or Indian. Being a PR had yet to be factored in.) I was in a so-called "premier school" that was more interested in how many As they could milk out of us rather than in our welfare or interests. I've seen how the education system here works.

I took a year off to do different things. Not all of them were costly. School had stressed me out and I knew I couldn't go straight to uni right after SPM. I was interested in the creative arts, out-of-the-box things, but it was very hard to find a place here that would accept the likes of me. Public university was a gone case. Scholarships? Gone case. There was only one place in the whole country that had what I was looking for - and then that place turned out to be a total let-down. Not what I had signed on for.

I got the amazing opportunity to travel with an international program. I was struggling to look for sponsorships because no one in this country had really heard of the program. It wasn't a university program, it wasn't Harvard or Oxford, why should they care? I was representing MALAYSIA and they still won't give a damn. Eventually my dad had to help me, at great personal cost - I'm intent on paying him back.

That trip changed a lot about me and I had different priorities. Knowing my former uni college won't do, I took a job for a few months, to earn money and to gain experience. It was stressful - I lived alone, fended for myself, I found out that the job wasn't for me. During that time I applied for another job, but I didn't get it; as a deal to my parents, I agreed that if that second job didn't work out I'd go to university. Australia was the only other option. And then thing with Australia is that a lot of scholarships you can only get once you're THERE - so I have to wait at least a semester. And I'll most likely get a job there to help support myself. I don't like being given handouts; I'd rather earn it.

My parents are going to retire soon anyway. It's really lucky that they made good financial choices when I was younger - insurance and savings and such. But I know I need to support myself at some stage. That's why I'm getting all the experience. Firstly (and mainly) because I truly ENJOY what I'm doing - typical student life, school-to-college-to-work would have stifled me and bored me - but also because it's what I do well in, and it's also what my chosen life demands. My chosen life demands unconventionality, it demands experience over grades, it demands adaptability, being very flexible.

The students here in Malaysia aren't being taught how to be flexible. It's One Way Only. What's the big problem in teaching people how to be flexible? To rely on themselves first and foremost?

Even going to Oz has its hassles. I only found out YESTERDAY that my visa's been approved - and I'm flying next week. I had to do more paperwork than any of the Malaysians here. Again, costs had to be factored in - I'm very FORTUNATE that we could afford this, yes, but it's not like we're rolling in money. It is quite a pinch. And there's all the paperwork. I'm just lucky the Admissions people were in KL during the IDP fair and accepted me on the spot! I'm just lucky the IDP people worked really, really hard for me! You think it's such a cakewalk?

People, please; let's learn from this experience, and move on. We already know that systems like these aren't reliable. But until they ever get fixed (which could take forever - or never) we need to RELY ON OURSELVES. By all means possible. Even if it means taking a short detour. We need to be FLEXIBLE, we need to be ADAPTABLE, we need to be SELF-RELIABLE.

We can't just keep waiting for something to change. We need to change too.

and for those of you wondering: I'm not a citizen yet due to Malaysian law. If you're born a child of foreigners, even in Malaysia - like I was - you're a foreigner. You need to get permanent residency, which takes many years, and then you need to wait at least 12 years (more if you've ever travelled outside the country) and then you can APPLY - it's not automatically granted to you. Who knows how long you'll need to wait. I wasn't 21 yet when we applied (I'll be 21 this September) so I have to go under my parents; my citizenship relies on theirs.

Being a PR isn't that easy in this country; people know what to do with you if you're a foreigner, and if you're a citizen, but being a PR is a weird gray area and people get confused. Especially if they're like me and are practically Malaysian by lifestyle - except the law won't give recognition. And you miss out on things like public unis or scholarships.

I guess after her explanation, Tiara either comes from a DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY, SOCIETY OR COUNTRYShe is therefore forgiven for her remarks due to her background and very myopic view of liferes ipsa loquitor

yeah, Tiara, you have A LOT of paperwork to do. But I bet those who didn't even get a chance to enter any university will happily trade in ten times the number of paperwork just to get a place.

Tiara, you can't possibly understand those who cannot afford a place in an overseas uni, can't get a scholarship and being unrightfully denied a place in a local uni. So please, just be more understanding. It is always very easy to say stand up and give it another go when you are not in their shoes.

Your comments merely seek to elevate your own character while at the same time belittle others when you are enjoying the priviledged of having a sponsored overseas education. Yet, you are complaining of all the hassle. Your problems are so puny yet you are making it seem as if it is almost as serious as those who can't even further their studies. Your attitude irks me to no end as it does so many other readers. Worse, you seem to show absolutely no sign of repentance... hopeless.

There are a few things that lead a good student (such as one with 9A1s) not to get into a program of choice.

1. Since his co-curricular activities were apparently spectacular, did he list them out and accompany the necessary certified documents along with his application?

2. If there was an interviewing process, how well did this person do? If the person can't talk as superbly as he is in his co-curricular activities, he won't get it.

3. Attitude. This will also be seen in the person's interview.

4. Even if he was active in co-curricular activities, to what extent was his involvement? If he was merely a member in all of the so listed activities, then it is not actually accounted for. Basically, he needs to either hold a post in the clubs, or he has to win at least a inter district level competition.

5. When filling the form, and this is what is the main cause of all this ruckus. Do NOT list the same course in different universities for ALL your choices. Put in some variety. If you want to do engineering, put different courses of engineering.

6. Also when filling the form, make sure you arrange your choices properly. Any nut who puts UiTM as their first choice and UM as their second choice, but would prefer to go to UM,....bad move...

There are a lot of things students can do outside of the system to get into public universities because not all the students already in there survive the first semester. Courses like Medicine, Engineering and Architecture are just a few examples. So, if you did not make the first cut, go to the university of your choice after the end of the first semester, and ask if there are any openings.

Also, please do NOT bring along begging parents, the newspaper reporters or a TV camera crew to help you get in.

If you still do NOT get into a public university after 1 year being out after SPM, I may suggest a few private colleges with good scholarship programs.

The problem is that these people usually have outstanding co-curricular achievements as well. And the universities do not conduct interviews for admission into any course... so all your points basically count for zilch... haha!

And any nut who wants UM will certainly put UM as their first choice lah... seems as if you are the nut.

And how could you tell people to list a variety? You think this is a lottery? If you don't like bioengineering and you know you really want to do either electrical or mechanical, why must you list bioengineering above mech or EE in any university?

These people did everything right yet do not seem to be able to gain admission. It is clearly the fault of the admissions department. It is impossible that thousands of applicants slip up year after year.

Aput, I think you have mistaken that we are discussing about SCHOLARSHIPS. We are discussing about UNIVERSITY ENTRANCE and admission, something that should be based purely on academic MERIT and nothing more. Only scholarships require all-rounded high achievers.

And Tiara, based on my reply to Aput, the same goes to you. We're not talking about scholarships. We're talking about something as small and as common as getting higher education. Something everyone who have the academic results must be allowed! This is why there's so much resentment against your comments. No doubt the importance of being adaptable, etc. but university education SHOULD NEVER be deprived of any Malaysian based on creed, colour, gender, or political background.

The whole education in Malaysia scene is getting worse and worse every year. It used to be scholarships only being the biggest headache, but now, even university admission is being debated as well? What next, deprieve people based on skin to basic education? And one has to keep in mind that our universities themselves are in pretty bad shape. And yet, they're admitting inferior students just to uphold some 30 year old pledge on Ketuanan Melayu.

Everything here from education to the economy is getting from bad to worse. There is no telling how deep a grave we can dig. Perhaps we have gone through a point of no return, then your argument of adaptability would be very useful, like in the old days of migration and the immigrant mentality.

Dear all anon above, stop being childish here. If you have something construtive to say, do it under one post. Don't pretend there were a lot anon supporting you pal. There was nothing wrong with TIara's comments here, but you, anon are going against her purposely. Are you having a problem with her? Some sort of enemy?

Tony, you might want to do something with this? We should get back to the actual issue and provide more help to those students whom i guess were very down now.

Although i disagree with some of Tiara's comments, i do feel that the bashing should stop...a pity she can't seem to understand what all this 'hype'is about It is even pitiful for those who are experiencing it now.

all you anonymous people are really brave, chicken-shit brave..don't even dare to put your names, but dare to attack other people's integrity. you're just as bad as those politicians which actually handle the university entrance systems. at least we all can put names to them, unlike you guys, who don't have enough balls to put your names up.

and about the ketuanan melayu question...if you want to blame that on anyone, blame it on the malaysian founding fathers. your forefathers agreed to it, deal with it, if you don't like it, fight to change it!

how? go demonstrate at the MOHE building asking for the abolishment of the quota! since your anonymous, I'm sure you can get PLENTY of people to join you, instead of simply bitching around here.

my point is this, if you can't beat the system, why not find some way to deal with it? I am offering alternatives, whereas you are offering...what was that word?

oh yeah...

"zilch"

anyways, about the comments, if these students with GOOD RESULTS and GOOD CO-CURRICULAR activities, they can apply for scholarships from the private colleges they attend, which is better than the shite loan of JPA and PTPTN.

yes, the education is getting worse, and by 2010, our schools would have been better off in the 1990s.

Matriculation is set up in 70s to assist our bumi brothers to enter varsity through so called the special channel instead of GCE A level or STPM.

But over years, due to lack of check and balance, UMNOputras has found this as the loophole and used it as the means to push as many b-students to enter IPTAs.

Unfortunately this has been done at the expense of quality and denied entrance to top students.(Top students defined here as those CGPA with 3.2 and above)

With students having as low as CGPA 2.0 from matriculation entering IPTAs, we are making a mockery to our IPTAs when we demand them to be world-class.

The inclusion of co-curricular points only serves to clutter the matter.

The concept of public universities, first and foremost must be fair to all.

It is an outrage students with CGPA 4.0 in STPM could NOT even get a first choice.

Our MPs should demand tranparency and clarification from MoHE.

Our Prof Hassan should inform the public the statistics of intake: how many students get their first choice, and how many get their second choice for current year?

He also should inform the public what are the percentages of students getting in the universities via STPM and Matriculations?

If the current system is really meritocratic as our leaders claim, it is only right we should publish the cut-off points in our local daily just like Australia and Japan. Every propective student knows their the entrance requirement and the cut-off points needed.

We will never move to any vision2020 if we cannot even set our Uni entrance right!

Great vision starts with simple steps with clear housekeeping and organization!

The UPU should publish all names and CGPA of successful candidates accepted into all public universities in the NEWSPAPERS. This is really meritrokasi. let the public judge.......nothing to hide..Names of National Service intake can be publish in the Newspapers why not sucessful intake into public "U".

Sorry Mr Tony, i know you dont want anymore comments pro or against Tiara..but if you could send this to her in anyway (dont have to publicise) that'll be great.

Tiara, i think i understand your situation and i gather that the main point is to be adaptable and flexible to change, becuase it is inevitable and if we dont do that we'll fail (except things related to religion obviously). The fact that you are a PR and was rejected to all scholarships and uni entry also shows you would've been in their shoes, except for the fact that you are lucky to have well-off parents to finance your studies (of which i have to admit is very expensive - got many friends studying overseas and usually having them as a study loan - in other words having to pay back, not being let off scot-free) so i pretty much see your point of view.

While this doesnt necessarily mean i side you all the way, (mainly because the other people might be a tad bit unfortunate due to lack of awareness from their background) I still think if we do a real effort, surely god would help. Didn't say it's easy, but at least we try, and given the passion, surely, surely something good would come to rise.

I have to admit, i was lucky to get a scholarship to study overseas (happened to be Australia actually!) but i just jumped in because i mainly thought about the glamour and pride of getting it. Now, i have graduated but i still do not know what kind of career i want in life (obviously you want to get that ideal job, but don't want to be too choosy), so that's another challenge. Now i'm subject to a 10-year bond with my sponsor, unless i fork out RM400K to bail out and be free...What now? I guess the moral is no matter what the circumstances may be, there's always gonna be these sorts of issues everyday, and unless we know what we really want (which i dont really, but researching), we are always gonna trapped in the rat race and whinging about our "takdir". Thanks for all your attention

i agree that this isn't a bumiputera/non-bumiputera issue or an STPM or matriculation qualification based issue at all. what seems to be the problem is the overall inefficiency of the system. I too experienced a somewhat similar situation -I have an excellent academic record (an all A student at that) and am equally active with extra curricular activities however I was unable to secure a place in any of the local universities as well. i was initially shocked & felt very bitter about it. however, now i have learnt to except the fact that possibly something went wrong somewhere in the application or during the application process along with numerous other factors i'm sure. i have taken a different route due to this, took out a huge loan (yes a loan, since i was unable to secure any scholarships which is a matter to pursue for another day!)anyway, applied to universities abroad, and managed to secure a place and have accepted this as my fate. but yes, i do agree things need to change with how UPU conducts their selection (it was UPU during my time) as deserving students are getting sidelined. i'm sure there are many more cases like mine & this student that did well but did not get into a national university. by the way, i'm neither non-bumiputera nor a matriculation student. so, it does indirectly tell us that the system is faulty.